Book Review: Adobe Digital Imaging HOW-TOs

April 12, 2011

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I want to recommend a really solid book, Adobe Digital Imaging HOW-TOs: 100 Essential Techniques for Photoshop CS5 by Dan Moughamian, Lightroom 3, and Camera Raw 6, which is for anyone who is using a Lightroom, Photoshop/Camera Raw workflow. I think an intermediate level user who knows the big picture, but may not have really dived into all the details will get the most out of this book. Though it would also be a great companion book for a new user who already has a more soup-to-nuts reference book for Lightroom and Photoshop.

I’ve had a review copy of this book for a few months, but my schedule has been so hectic I didn’t want to write this review until I had a chance to actually read the whole book, which I finally had the pleasure of doing. I was really impressed with the choices Dan made for what to include in the book. If I had been asked to choose 100 tips that covered Lightroom, Camera Raw and Photoshop I’m not sure I would even have known where to start! Half of the tips are devoted to Lightroom (and camera raw) and the rest are aimed at Photoshop, and it is a really good crop of tips to have under your belt.

I even learned something new about Lightroom that I had never stumbled on before, Tip #8 on Folder Import, which was very cool!

Dan has a very easy to read style, gives clear instructions, and makes a nice use of screen captures (though I’m sure he would have added more if he’d been allowed). There’s a wealth of smaller tips in the margins too. I was also really pleased to see the book is in full color, because I thought these HOW-Tos books were previously all grayscale. What’s really great about this type of book is that you can pick it up and start anywhere and just focus on a few tips at a time.

I gave away my copy during my Lightroom presentation at Photoshop World and I’m sure it is already being put to good use. This is definitely a book worth checking out. There is sample content and related articles over at Peachpit too.